This is probably a bit late, considering it’s already three days into the month, but today’s post is basically just an August guide for Animal Crossing: New Leaf. There is some news which you can find at the bottom of the page, but the rest of the post is just the guide. Enjoy!

Animal Crossing New Leaf – August Guide

Events

4th August – Fireworks Display (7PM-12AM)

11th August – Fireworks Display (7PM-12AM)

15th August – Obon (Japan Only – All Day)

17th August – Bug-Off (9AM-9PM)

18th August – Fireworks Display (7PM-12AM)

25th August – Fireworks Display (7PM-12AM)

New Fish

Frog

Giant Snakehead

Killifish

Puffer Fish

Squid

New Bugs

Petaltail Dragonfly

House Centipede

Locust

Not the most in depth guide, but who really cares about stuff like villager birthdays.

There was some news today, which was rather conveniently related to Animal Crossing: New Leaf. European players of the game are able to visit a Pikmin 3 house on the game in the Happy Homes Showcase, if they have SpotPass enabled on their console. This is a promotion for the Wii U title, which is released in North America tomorrow, and is already out in Europe and Japan.

That’s about it. As always, there was some other insignificant stuff, but I really can’t be asked to write about it. Till tomorrow.

So today was one of those days in which a bunch of games were announced for Nintendo consoles. Not necessarily games which will get you overly excited, but games nether the less. This wasn’t to be unexpected though; this happens on the majority of Fridays from my experience. I suppose you might wonder what these four games are, but we’re going to begin today’s blog with the release date mentioned in the title.

You probably noticed that the release date which was announced today was for the Wii U title The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD, the remake of the GameCube game The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. Unfortunately for the majority of readers, the release date given by Nintendo today was for the Japanese version of the game, which will launch on September 26th in Nintendo’s homeland. The Wind Waker HD is set to be released in North America and Europe sometime during October. This news was revealed alongside the Japanese cover art for the game (see above), which is some of the best I’ve seen for years. I’m can only wish the European version of Wind Waker HD gets the same cover art as the Japanese game.

Onto the four games then, starting with Monster Hunter Frontier Online. This Japan-only game was originally released on the PC in 2007, and was later ported to the Xbox 360 in 2010. Capcom are now bringing the game to the Wii U and PS3 on December 11th; it’s extremely unlikely Monster Hunter Frontier Online will ever be released in the west, so don’t get your hopes up on this. You can see the announcement trailer here.

The second of the games announced today was Mysterious Cities of Gold: Secret Paths, which will come to the 3DS and Wii U later this year in October. However, there is a crucial detail anybody who wants to purchase this Neko Entertainment game should know. You will only be able to play the game in French. This is probably the first time ever a games target audience is the French and Canadians from Quebec. An odd decision by Neko Entertainment when you consider how many people will be unable to play the game because of this.

Next up is a 3DS eShop title Jump Trials Supreme, which is developed and published by G-Style. The game is a successor to the DSiWare title Jump Trials Extreme, a 2D platformer in which the player has 10 seconds to reach the goal. Once again, Jump Trails Extreme has only been given a Japanese release date of November, with no news on a North American or European release so far.

The final of todays game reveals was Breath of Fire II, which will come to the Wii U Virtual Console in the upcoming months. Breath of Fire II was released on the SNES in 1994, and the RPG has since been ported to the Game Boy Advance and the Wii Virtual Console.

Away from game reveals, Satoru Iwata has revealed that the four 3DS Streetpass DLC Games which Nintendo released last month have already made Nintendo 400 Million Yen ($4.3 Million/£2.6 Million), despite the fact that the DLC received almost no promotion. Iwata believes the success of these four titles was down to the amount of people sharing news about the Streetpass games on Twitter and Facebook. You can read all of what Iwata said below:

With the 3DS, there is the StreetPass Mii Plaza, which you can use to play games with Miis that you meet by walking past other people carrying a 3DS. However, because people were growing tired of playing the same couple games, we have, in fact, brought four new StreetPass Mii Plaza games! Four new games have been added, where you can buy one game for ¥500 or all four games at a discounted price of ¥1500.

One month has passed since we added these new StreetPass Mii Plaza games, and we did not use any type of mass advertising. It was written on our homepage, with information about all the new content included in the update. You are also made aware when you visit the StreetPass Mii Plaza for the first time after the update, but we didn’t use anything like television commercials to advertise.

However, in this state, we have generated a lot of income from our customers. Furthermore, a lot of the people who are playing and enjoying the new games are communicating and advertising through outlets like Twitter. Thanks to this, the circle of customers is growing bigger and bigger, and interestingly, sales were a strong ¥400 million in only a month.

So another month begins, which means new fish and bugs to catch in Animal Crossing: New Leaf. I’ll post an article tomorrow with the details of what’s new this month in your town, but for now lets begin today’s news.

Nintendo have been once again speaking about bringing their games to mobile and tablets; as per usual the comments made by Nintendo aren’t in support of gaming on these devices. Nintendo have said they feel that if they bring games from their established series onto smartphones, the value of these brands would decrease. You can read all of what Nintendo had to say below:

“Performance is temporarily getting better, you can’t get a true feel for Mario on smartphone or tablet, and this would also lead to a decrease in brand value over the long term.”

If Nintendo ever bring their games onto iOS or Android devices, the company would lose their reputation as a respectable gaming company. The big three would become the big two. Even if releasing Mario and Zelda titles on smartphones increases the value of Nintendo, it would mean ditching all of their loyal fans, including myself. So please Nintendo, never make a Mario game for a smartphone. Ever.

Talking about smartphones, Nintendo have announced that you will soon be able to purchase eShop titles from you smartphones. A Nintendo employee has said that soon players with a Nintendo Network ID will be able to go onto an app and buy a game, so when you next go on your Wii U or 3DS the game will be downloaded on your console. The Nintendo employee said the following:

”Users will be able to log onto the site and set purchases up for download so that once they get home, it will be available for them and they can have that at their fingertips whenever they need it.”

That’s pretty much it for today. There was some other news, but I didn’t have time to put it in as I’m changing my broadband supplier today. This meant I have to write today’s post in McDonald’s, and I didn’t want to stay for all that long. Anyway, things will be back to normal tomorrow. Until then.

So today Nintendo released their financial results for Q1 of the financial year, which spans between April to June 2013. Before we start, I should state that overall, the results of the financial report and generally positive. However, the is a negative. Not a disaster, but certainly not what Nintendo were hopping for. Find out what this negative is below, if you haven’t already.

As already mentioned, Nintendo released their financial report for Q1 2013. First of all, lets take a look at the console sales released in the report:

3DS – 1,400,000

Wii U – 160,000

Wii – 210,000

DS – 60,000

So what can we gather from these figures? Well for a start, the 3DS is selling particularly well, but this isn’t a surprise when you look at the games released on the console between April to June. Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon was released worldwide, Animal Crossing: New Leaf was released in North America and Europe and the popular Tomodachi Collection was released in Japan. This is contrasting to the Wii U, which didn’t sell so well. The Wii U shifted less units then the Wii, which is largely because of the titles which Nintendo released on the console. Game & Wario was the only retail game released, and I hated that game. There was New Super Luigi U, but that was just a DLC title, even if Nintendo did release the game in retail. Lets take a look at some of the software figures from April to June released by Nintendo today:

Tomodachi Collection — 1,390,000 million

Animal Crossing: New Leaf — 1,540,000 million (350,000 from Japan)

Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon — 1,430,000 million

So you can see 3DS software sales are currently strong. Overall, 11,000,000 3DS games sold in the past three months, which is more then even Nintendo themselves predicted. This is once again contrasting to the Wii U; only 1,000,000 Wii U titles were shifted in the last quarter. This is less then the Wii and DS, which shifted 3,670,000 and 2,150,000 software units respectively. So the Wii U sold less then half the software units that the last-gen Nintendo consoles did, and 10 times less then the 3DS.

The final piece of new from the latest financial report is that the Wii, which only sold 210,000 hardware units in the last quarter, has finally sold over 100,000,000 consoles. This makes the Wii the third Nintendo console to reach this landmark, after the Game Boy and the DS. It’s also the first Nintendo home console to reach this landmark. A great console with some of the best games to ever be released on Nintendo consoles, which thoroughly deserved to surpass this momentous landmark.

So what do all of these figures mean for overall profit? Well Nintendo received net sales of 81.5 Billion Yen ($827 Million/£545 Million), and an operation loss of 4.9 Billion Yen ($88 Million/£58 Million). Overall, Nintendo recorded a profit of 8.63 Billion Yen. So was this a good report? Well, you would have to say yes. Any profit is a profit, and many would’ve predicted that Nintendo would make a loss in the quarter. But obviously, there is one glaring issue that needs to be addressed.

To say the figures of the Wii U are disappointing would be an understatement. The consoles sales are currently an embarrassment, and that’s putting it lightly. However, I fully trust Nintendo to turn the fortunes of the Wii U around. As I mentioned in a post 10 days ago, there is a bombardment of massive Wii U games being released in the upcoming months, and they will surely be a fundamental part in bringing the Wii U back on track. Read our 10 Games That Will Save The Wii U feature which we completed yesterday just to see the sheer amount of games which are coming to the console in the upcoming year. If the games in this list don’t improve this consoles sales, then quite frankly, nothing will.

There was some other news released as part of today’s financial report, all related to the release of some upcoming 3DS games. For starters, Mario Golf: World Tour, will be released in North America this summer, and in Europe later this year. Another game with more release news is Bravely Default: Flying Fairy, which has been pushed back to a 2014 release in Europe; this game will now be released in North America and Europe next year. Finally, Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy, the last game in the series to feature Professor Layton as the protagonist, will be released later this year in Europe. This game will be released in 2014 in North America.

That’s all for today then. Sorry it’s a bit late, tomorrows post will be released at the usual time. Till then.

Today started with some bad news for European 3DS owners. Flipnote Studio 3D, which was originally due for release on August 1st, has now been delayed. This was announced earlier today on Nintendo’s Twitter account. Nintendo claim that this delay was caused by the popularity of the game in Japan. They say that they want to release Flipnote Studio 3D in Europe when the games servers have calmed down, as if they released the game in Europe now they would crash instantly. Read the full article on this here, or continue with today’s news below.

First of all, Nintendo released an update for Miiverse, which made improvements which users have been requesting since the launch of Nintendo’s social network service late in November. You can see a list of these improvements below:

Users can now add the following tags to posts – Question, Accomplishment, Impressions, Retro and Players Wanted

Users can now make posts with up to 200 characters, which doubles the previous total of 100

Various changes to the Miiverse Code of Conduct

So now Miiverse users can post with more characters then Twitter users. Even if Twitter has 500,000,000 users, we can now boast about our superior character limit.

In other news, Nintendo announced that they will release a Black 3DS XL console in North America. This news comes after the black console was used in an American advert for Mario & Luigi: Dream Team despite the fact that this particular console wasn’t currently for sale in the country. This black console will be released on August 11th, the same day that the Mario & Luigi: Dream Team comes to the continent. The Black 3DS XL will launch with a retail price of $199.99.

Finally, the official website for the Wii U game Pikmin 3 was released by Nintendo today. If your still on the fence about buying Pikmin 3, have a look at the website to see if it sways you. Pikmin 3 is already out in Japan and Europe, and will be released in North America on August 4th.

That’s all for today. Just one last thing, if you haven’t read out 10 Games To Save The Wii U feature yet, make sure you do. You can view it via the links below. Till tomorrow.

Welcome to part two of out 10 Games That Will Save The Wii U feature. To see part one, click the link above, or to continue the feature from Number 5, read on from below.

5. Sonic Lost World (Europe – October 18th/North America – October 22nd/Japan – October 24th)

Next up on our list of games to save the Wii U is the first third-party Nintendo exclusive on the list, Sonic Lost World. The Wii U game is developed by Sonic Team, and published by Sega and Nintendo, depending on the region. With levels that are based on Sonic the Hedgehog from the Genesis era, Sonic Lost World looks set to be a truly special Sonic experience. The game has a range of level styles, with some being 2D and others being 3D. The most impressive levels on Sonic Lost World are the ones which take place on spherical worlds, akin to the Super Mario Galaxy games.

These styles of levels are what makes Sonic Lost World different from other platformers. The range of types of levels will mean the game shouldn’t feel repetitive, the main criticism other games in the same genre often face. With Sonic Lost World, you could play for hours on end without getting bored; this is why the game will be so important for Nintendo, who made a deal with Sega to make the title exclusive to the Wii U and 3DS. With good reviews, success will be a certain with Sonic Lost World, as Sonic is such a massive franchise. This is the first game on the list which people will buy a Wii U to play. Although, this is permitting the game does get the reviews we all fully expect it too.

Next up is the Retro Studios developed Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, which Nintendo will publish this November. This 2D-Scrolling Platformer is the fifth in the Donkey Kong Country series, which allows you to play as Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong and Dixie Kong. The game is a sequel to the Wii game Donkey Kong Country: Returns, and will be the first HD title in the series

Some may question why this game is so high up the list of games to save the Wii U, but these queries will be quickly diminished when you take a look at the sales of the previous Donkey Kong Country game. First of all, Donkey Kong Country: Returns sold 4,980,000 copies worldwide in one year. For a game which was released so late on into the Wii’s lifetime, this is particularly impressive. This is a game which outsold The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. On top of these sales, you have those of the 3DS remake Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, which was reported to have sales which bettered those of the Wii original. So if the Wii U sequel can match the sales of the Wii and 3DS games, Donkey Kong will be crucial for Nintendo.

Next is Super Smash Bros. Wii U, which is developed and published by Nintendo. The fighting game is perhaps the most anticipated game on this list, so you may wonder why the game is third. But in all honesty, the top three could be put in any order. However, I decided that as Super Smash Bros. Wii U may not be released for over a year, the title isn’t as important for the revival of the Wii U. Anyway, in case you aren’t aware, Super Smash Bros. is a game in which Nintendo characters from any series come together and fight. Super Smash Bros. Wii U will feature most players from previous installments in the series, like Mario, Link, Zelda, Kirby, Yoshi, as well as new characters. These new characters are Mega Man, Wii Fit Trainer and Animal Crossing Villager. These characters, alongside new stages and revolutionary cross play with the 3DS title, Super Smash Bros. Wii U, all add up to make what should be the best Smash Bros. game to date.

This is a game which manages to make Nintendo fans hyped years before release. It’s the kind of game which if you enjoy, the wait between one title an the next is agonizing. However, with Super Smash Bros. Wii U, this won’t be the case. This is because the game launches alongside a 3DS counterpart, Super Smash Bros. 3DS. Owning each of these titles will allow you to carry in game data between the two titles, which will make the replay value of Super Smash Bros for these two titles even larger.

When you look at the sales of other Smash Bros games, you can see how popular the series is. Super Smash Bros. Brawl sold 11,490,000 worldwide since the games release on the Wii; the only Wii games to sell more titles than this are Mario Kart Wii, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Super Mario Galaxy and some of the Wii…. titles (Wii Fit, Wii Sports, Wii Play etc.). At the end of the last 3 Nintendo consoles life, you could look back and see a Super Smash Bros. game in near the top of the game sales charts of that console. You can say for certain that the same thing will be repeated with the Wii U.

Second place on our list of games to save the Wii U is the Nintendo published and developed Mario Kart 8. This game is, as suggested by the title, the eight game in the Mario Kart series, following the popular Mario Kart 7 for the Nintendo 3DS. Since the game was only revealed at E3 last month, we are yet to know much about this title. However, we do know what the new feature in this title will be. The ability to race in anti-gravity sections. This means for some parts of a course, you will be able to race on the walls or ceilings in the course. Not the most innovative feature Nintendo have ever come up with, but for fans on Mario Kart, exciting no the less. On top of this, there will also be returning features, such as being able to race on motorbikes and the ability to fly and to drive underwater.

Mario Kart 8 looks set to be one of the best games for showcasing the online abilities of the Wii U, just like Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart 7 did on the Wii and 3DS. For starters, you will once again be able to compete in 12 player online races, which means the game is set to return to its excruciatingly aggravating nature which we have become so accustomed to over the past few years. Mario Kart 8 will also be one of the Wii U games to make best use of Miiverse, with players able to upload clips from their races onto Nintendo’s social network.

While Mario Kart 8 may not be as innovative as some of the other titles on this list, it simply doesn’t need to be. When you look at the sales of Mario Kart Wii, you see that the title was the second best selling Wii title, selling 34,260,000 copies. Mario Kart 7 sold 8,080,000 copies worldwide, which makes it the second best selling 3DS title. If our prediction is correct, Mario Kart 8 will be the second best selling Wii U games as well. But behind what?

Taking the top spot on our list of games to save the Wii U is the once again Nintendo developed and published Super Mario 3D World. This is a title which no Nintendo fan is unaware of, what with it being the first 3D Mario game to be released on the Wii U. Being developed by the same team who made Super Mario Galaxy 2 for the Wii and Super Mario 3D Land for the 3DS, this will surely be yet another fantastic installment into Nintendo’s most popular franchise. The game, which was announced at this years E3, will play in a similar style to Super Mario 3D Land. Players will play on a 3D level, but the goal is to get to the flag at the end of a set course, like in the 3DS game. While it may just sound like a new version of the 3DS game, one feature makes sure that it is certainly is not.

Super Mario 3D World will be the first 3D Mario game to ever allow for proper multiplayer. Up to 4 players are able to play in any level at the same time, with the playable characters being Mario, Luigi, Toad and Peach. Each of these characters has different abilities, which means playing in multiplayer is essential for completing the game. While multiplayer has been put into the previous New Super Mario Bros. games, this is the first time multiplayer enhances the gameplay of a Mario game. This makes the title an essential purchase for any Nintendo fan.

The main reason this title is ahead of Mario Kart 8 at number one is because of what happened with the 3DS at the end of 2011. Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land were both due for release at the end of the year; despite what most predicted, Super Mario 3D Land was the title to sell more copies. As the Wii U is in an almost identical position, there is no reason to suggest the games will sell any differently on the Wii U. Alongside the fact that Super Mario 3D World will be released before the holiday season, unlike Mario Kart 8 which will be released in Spring 2014, we reckon that the 3D Mario title will be the one to have the most important part in helping to save the Wii U.

So that’s the end of our two part series of the 10 games which will save the Wii U. Did you agree with our placement of the games on our list? Comment below or talk to us @world_nintendo on Twitter to tell us what you think. If you enjoyed this article, follow us on WordPress and Twitter for more updates on the latest Nintendo news.

Nintendo of Europe have announced on their official Twitter account that the free eShop download Flipnote Studio 3D has been delayed in Europe. The sequel to the DSi title Flipnote Studio was originally due to be released on August 1st, this Thursday, but unfortunately the game will now be released at a later date. Nintendo posted the following on their Twitter:

We regret to announce that Flipnote Studio 3D will be delayed in Europe, as we try to offer the best possible service. We apologize for any inconvenience caused and hope to announce a new Flipnote Studio 3D launch date as soon as possible

Flipnote Studio 3D is already out in Japan and is due for a North American release later this month. Hopefully the game will release in Europe this month as well.

Today’s blog really has a load of news in, but it was the quickest I’ve written one since World Nintendo News changed to this format around a week ago. Funny. Really proves that things are much more efficient once you have a routine. Anyway, onto the news.

First of all, Takashi Iizuka, the head of Sonic Team, has been talking about why his latest Wii U and 3DS title Sonic LostWorld is exclusive to Nintendo consoles. Takashi said that Sonic Lost World was originally developed on the PC before Sonic Team decided which platform the title should be released on. You can see what Takashi Iizuka had to say about this below:

“The Wii U hadn’t been revealed when development began for Sonic Lost World, so we were working on a PC version in order to see what kind of platformer we could make. Then, when we tried to think about which platform would be best for this game, we chose Nintendo.”

I’m not sure they chose Nintendo to be honest. In a Nintendo Direct earlier this year, Nintendo announced that they had made a deal with Sega; this deal meant that several upcoming Sonic games would be exclusive to Nintendo consoles. So, lets be honest, it’s more about the money then console. The game looks brilliant either way, so I’m not to bothered.

Also, Konami are in fact releasing Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 (Or Winning Eleven 2014 in Japan) on the Nintendo 3DS. This is surprising news, as earlier this year Konami stated that they wouldn’t be releasing the game on any Nintendo console because of the underwhelming sales of Pro Evolution Soccer 2013. However, the game is currently only coming to the 3DS in Japan, although the game will hopefully be announced for a European and North American released. If PES 14 doesn’t come to the 3DS, it will be Europe and North American Nintendo fans will not get a new soccer game for the year. This is because EA aren’t making any games for Nintendo consoles, remember? So football (NOT SOCCER) fans will be hoping that Konami do bring this game to the west.

In other news, Pikmin 3 has beaten the critically acclaimed PS3 title The Last of Us to second place in the UK charts this week; you should however take into account that The Last of Us has been out for around a month now. However, Pikmin 3 had to settle for second place, as the Xbox 360 version of Minecraft claimed the number one spot. Other Nintendo games in the top 10 this week are Animal Crossing: New Leaf which moves up from fifth to forth, and Mario And Luigi: Dream Team Bros, which dropped from third to fifth. Still, three Nintendo exclusives in the UK Top 5. We certainly haven’t seen that for a while! You can see the full top 10 below:

Hiroyuki Kubota, the head developer of the 3DS game Mario & Luigi: DreamTeam, been talking about making a Wii U version of the Mario & Luigi games. Hiroyuki, who works for AlphaDream, said that while he is interested in the Wii U, he has no intention of bringing Mario & Luigi games to the console. Read what Hiroyuki had to say below:

“As a developer I am interested, but we currently have no plans for a Wii U version. If we want to convey the amusement and fun of the character animations and reactions using AlphaDream’s pixel art, I think handheld consoles are the best for doing this.”

I completely agree with him on this. While it would be fun to play the game on the Wii U, HD graphics would not be particularly well suited for this series, as the game may become more serious with a different article. So just make another 3DS game AlphaDream!

Finally, the UK retailer Asda is no longer selling Wii U consoles in their stores. The large supermarket chain recently didn’t stock Pikmin 3, despite the fact that the game was extremely popular in the UK this week. Asda representative said the following about when asked about why the company is not stocking Wii U consoles:

“Asda continues to offer customers a selection of Wii U games and accessories through Asda Direct, but these ranges are currently not on offer in Asda shops.”

Doesn’t really matter. Who’s buying their Video Games and Consoles from Asda anyway?

Anyway, that’s all for today. We’ll be posting part two of our popular 10 Games That Will Save The Wii U in at around 9:00 PM GMT, so that’s something to look forward too. Anyway, see you tomorrow.

So the boring Sunday bug has reoccurred once again this week in the world of Nintendo. Little interesting news was released so many websites didn’t bother posting any articles. However, this doesn’t happen at World Nintendo News. Just in case you didn’t see, look at part one of our ‘10 Games To Save The Wii U‘ article we posted earlier today. Anyway, onto the little news that happened today….

Famitsu, the famous Japanese gaming magazine, announced the best selling games in Japan since the beginning of 2013 in the latest edition of their magazine. As you might expect, the incredibly popular Animal Crossing: New Leaf was the best selling game over the last six months. You can see the first 10 in the list below:

[3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf

[3DS] Dragon Quest VII: Fighters of Eden

[3DS] Friend Collection: New Life

[3DS] Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon

[PS3] Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

[PS3] One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2

[PS3] Dynasty Warriors 8

[3DS] New Super Mario Bros. 2

[3DS] Shin Megami Tensei IV

[3DS] Professor Layton and the Legacy of Civilization

Over the top 100, which you can see here, Sony consoles had more games then Nintendo consoles did. However, the 3DS was the console with the majority of the games in the top 100. You can see how the games are split between the consoles below:

3DS – 32

PS3 – 27

PSP – 15

PSV – 13

Wii – 7

Wii U – 5

NDS – 1

So this means:

Sony – 55

Nintendo – 45

Surprising that Sony would preform better then Nintendo, but that does show the struggles the Wii U is facing.

Anyway, that’s all for today. From next week, I’ll post a review of a Wii or DS game which you can buy on the cheap every Sunday so the news drought doesn’t seem so obvious. Anyway, till tomorrow.